Golf bags



Oct. 14, 1958 -w. J. WYCHERLEY GOLF BAGS Filed May 14, 1956 United ttes Patent GOLF BAGS William James Wycherley, Horbury, England, assignor to Slazengers Limited, London, England, a British com- P y Application May 14, 1956, Serial No. 584,521 Claims priority, application Great Britain May 31, 1955 3 Claims. (Cl. 150-15) This invention relates to golf bags and particularly to the means for reinforcing them.

Hitherto it has been customary to incorporate flat reinforcing bars in golf bags extending from top to bot tom, a smaller bag usually having one down each side of the bag and larger bags incorporating intermediate bars. Such bars are required to maintain the bag formation otherwise, due to the bag construction and flexible nature of the material employed, e. g., leather, imitation leather or leather-reinforced canvas or other textile material, the bag will sag and lose its shape. Hitherto it has been customary to incorporate the bars during the manufacture of the bag which causes diificulties to arise with resultant waste of time and substantial production costs. Moreover, the bag requires to be manufactured in such a way that the bars have become an integral part of the bag and this does not facilitate packaging or transport of the golf bags.

The main object of this invention is to facilitate the production of golf bags and provide improved reinforcing means.

Accordingly there is provided a golf bag including socket elements in the base and upper part of the bag, at least one reinforcing rod extending between upper and lower socket elements, and a screw-threaded connection at least at one rod end to allow longitudinal tension to be applied to the bag. The upper socket may be constructed to enable the rod to be rotated for tensioning purposes.

The improved tensioning device may include two (or more) upper socket elements in combination with a reinforcing ring embodied in the top edge or end of the bag, with two (or more) socket elements secured in the bag base, and each reinforcing rod may be located in a narrow pocket formed down the bag wall. The bag may be almost completed with the socket elements in position, the rod or rods inserted, tension applied and finally the upper end of the rod or rods and associated element or elements covered, say by turning over a cover strip or patch and securing it.

Referring now to the accompanying drawings:

Fig. 1 is a sectional elevation of a golf bag showing two reinforcing rods in position together with their associated parts;

Fig. 2 is a part sectional detail elevation of the rods and socketed members fitted together.

Fig. 3 is an enlarged detail of reinforcing rod ends in their sockets;

Fig. 4 is an enlarged detail of a modified form of upper socket connection.

In a particular embodiment of this invention a golf bag 1 is constructed according to known methods with the exception that a socket element 2 is secured, by riveting, in the base 3 of the bag at each side thereof. These socket elements are secured to the wall part 4 of the usual leather or other material dished base of the bag and each comprise a plain sleeve-like element ice with a closed bottom and an integral eye 5 (or eyes), or similar part, for securing the element in position.

During the formation of the bag a usual form of reinforcing strip 6 is incorporated down the bag on the inside face at the centre of the bag body when it is laid flat. Another strip 7 is provided down the outside of the bag body where its overlapped edges are jointed to produce the usual tubular shape. Thus an elongated narrow pocket is provided down opposite sides of the bag. In this construction the stitching can be carried out more freely than previously as there is no reinforcing element incorporated in the bag Wall during the application of these strips. The upper end of the bag is formed in the usual way with a cufi 8 but in this invention the usual metal reinforcing ring 9 incorporated in the upper turned-over edge of the cufi is furnished with a pair of socket elements 10 which may be welded or brazed thereto or otherwise combined therewith. These sockets are screw-threaded internally. After the base 3 has been secured to the bag body, reinforcing rods 11 may then be inserted into position and are constructed so that they can be passed straight down through the upper socket elements It) until screw-threads on the enlarged upper ends 12 of the rods engage the screw-threaded socket elements. Each rod has its lower end entered into a lower socket 2 and rotation of the rod will cause it to apply tension as it will be tending to push the upper reinforcing ring up with it. Thus a required amount of tension can be applied to the bag to give a good formation to it. To facilitate rotation of each rod it has a slot 13 or notch in its upper end to receive a screwdriver, or other tool.

When the rods have been located and tension applied the upper ends 12 of the rods 11 and the upper socket elements 10 are covered by reinforcing strips or patches. Conveniently one rod and element is covered by turning over the projecting loose end 14 of the outside reinforcing strip 7 and'securing it down, say by a rivet or rivets. The other rod end and socket is covered by the usual riveted-on anchorage strip 15 employed to secure the upper loop 16 of the golf bag shoulder sling 17. It is the usual practice to provide golf bags with both a shoulder sling and a handle 18 on the same side of the bag and with this arrangement the anchorage loops 19 for the handle and the loop 20 for the lower end of the sling, which usually incorporates an anchored buckle 21, are conveniently passed through slits in the bag wall and any outside reinforcing strips or patches for the reinforcing rod 11 to be threaded therethrough during positioning so that the handle and sling are anchored in a very simple manner.

It will be understood that for large bags additional reinforcing rods may be required in which case additional base socket elements 2 are secured in position and the upper reinforcing ring 9 is furnished with the required number of intermediate socket elements 10. If required, any of the lower socket elements may be screw-threaded to receive the reinforcing rods.

The arrangement may be modified without departing from the scope of the invention, e. g., a rod 11 instead of screwing into the upper element may carry a locknut 22 (Fig. 4) or sleeve to bear against the underside of a plain socket element 23. Conveniently the reinforcing rods are made of spring steel so that should there be any tendency to deformation the rods can return to a normal or required position and furthermore if sufficient tension is applied they can be caused to bend at least slightly outwardly. Hitherto the old form of reinforcing bar has often bent inwardly and so reduced the capacity of the bag. The rods may be made of glass.

fibre, synthetic resin or other material.

What I claim is:

1. A golf bag comprising a tubular body of flexible material, a base member closing the lower end of said body, a cufi surrounding the upper end of said body, a pair of longitudinally aligned socket elements, one of said elements being fixedly associated with the base member and the other element being fixedly associated with the cuff part of the bag, a reinforcing rod extending between said upper and lower socket elements, the lower end of the rod being rotatably retained in the lower socket and the upper end of the rod being screw-thrcadably connected to its associated socket, whereby upon assembly the rod is inserted axially through the top socket into retained engagement with both sockets and is then rotated to urge the sockets apart by means of said screw-threaded connection to apply longitudinal ten sion to the bag.

2. A golf bag as defined in claim 1, wherein the upper end of the rod has a diameter greater than that of the remainder of the rod.

3. A golf bag comprising a vertical tubular body of flexible material having a plurality of narrow longitudinal pockets in the walls thereof, an integral base member closing the lower end of said body, an upper cufi part surrounding the upper end of said body, a reinforcing ring enclosed in said end part, at least two upper socket elements secured to said ring in substantially diametricallyopposed relationship with respect thereto, at least two lower socket elements secured to said base member in longitudinal alignment with the respective upper sockets, a reinforcing rod extending between each upper socket and its aligned lower socket, each of said rods being located in one of said narrow pockets formed in the body wall and having its lower end located in a bore in the lower socket, and its upper end screw-threadably connected in the upper socket, whereby upon axial rotation of the rods the sockets are urged apart to apply longitudinal tension to the bag.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 664,147 Harth Dec. 18, 1900 880,612 Whittaker Mar. 3, 1908 2,435,479 Thommen Feb. 3, 1948 2,599,635 Hotze June 10, 1952 FOREIGN PATENTS 340,385 Great Britain Jan. 1, 1931 

